Gov. Greg Abbott prepares for a second term leading Texas.
Courtney M Sacco, Corpus Christi Caller-Times

The accident that left Gov. Greg Abbott paralyzed at age 26 has helped him find his voice to reassure Texans from Hurricane Harvey to Sutherland Springs.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott during an interview at his office in the State Capitol in Austin on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018. He has said "the toughest thing I've ever had to do as governor” was visiting with the survivors of First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, the site of the nation’s worst mass shooting at a house of worship.(Photo: Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times)

AUSTIN — Coming off a convincing victory for a second term as governor in the nation’s most Republican state, Greg Abbott sounds like someone trying to steer his party away from the wedge issues that monopolized lawmakers’ time in 2017 and back toward the issues dear to the Texas GOP’s business-minded wing.

"We need to respond to what we heard from voters," Abbott said in a wide-ranging December interview with the USA Today Network in his spacious second-floor office in the Texas Capitol. "And what I heard from voters was 'you better cut my property taxes, you better fund our schools, you better increase teacher pay, and you better make our schools safe for our kids.’

"So I listen to our voters. I respond to our voters. And I think all the members who just got elected will be equally responsive."

Implicit in that statement is that Texas voters have little appetite for efforts like the one spearheaded two years ago by Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick that sought to limit the restroom options of transgender people.

Before it was derailed in the Texas House, the so-called bathroom bill tied the 2017 legislative session in knots and split traditional chamber-of-commerce Republicans, who worried that such measures would drive business from Texas, from the more vocal social conservatives.

Abbott's agenda for Texas

At 61 and in his 22nd year as a statewide officeholder, Abbott emerged from last month’s election Texas’ leading vote-getter. Not only did he defeat his Democratic challenger, Abbott also bested U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, his one-time political protégé and perhaps the state’s best-known political figure, by almost 400,000 votes as he led Texas Republicans to yet another sweep of the statewide ballot.

But his margin of victory against poorly funded Democrat Lupe Valdez was much closer than his landslide win four years earlier. And it came as Democrats made substantial gains in congressional and statehouse races.

Those gains, Texas political insiders say, can actually accrue to Abbott’s benefit because it will enable him to forge Republican-Democrat coalitions on pocketbook issues like tax policy and education reform.

“I think he’s going to be able to claim credit on same major bipartisan policy movements,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor who closely monitors the political machinations in Austin.

Even though Abbott served nearly six years on the Texas Supreme Court and 12 years as state attorney general, he seldom was seen as a magnet for headlines even into his early tenure as governor.

'I’m a person who's felt pain'

Events outside of his control changed that dramatically beginning in the latter half of 2017. First came Hurricane Harvey, which decimated large sections of the Texas Coast with Category 4 winds in late August that year followed by unprecedented flooding in Houston.

The governor took command of the response and recovery at the state’s underground emergency operations center, nicknamed “the bunker” north of downtown Austin. That was followed by frequent trips accompanying President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence to the hardest-hit areas and sometimes emotional visits with Texans who coped with the loss of their homes, and sometimes the loss of loved ones.

That was followed by what Abbott called "the toughest thing I've ever had to do as governor,” visiting with the survivors of First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, the site of the nation’s worst mass shooting at a house of worship.

To make the transition from the state's chief executive to the less familiar role of comforter to a grief-shocked Texas, Abbott drew on the strength that came from being paralyzed from the waist down just as his promising law career was getting started at age 26.

Seeking relief from the stress of studying for the bar exam after graduating from Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville, Tennessee, Abbott and a friend went for a jog in Houston on the breezy afternoon of July 14, 1984. Suddenly, a giant oak splintered, cracked and fell crashing down on Abbott.

Still a newlywed who'd been planning a deferred honeymoon with his wife, Abbott was nearly killed and his spinal cord was damaged. He would never walk again.

"I’m a person who's felt pain," Abbott said, relaying how he steels himself for meeting people on what is often the worst day of their lives. "I know personally what disaster is. Life-changing disaster. As a result, I can be very empathetic with people whose lives have been turned upside down."

Gov. Greg Abbott holds a candle during a vigil kept across the street from the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs where 26 people were killed in shooting Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017, in Sutherland Springs.(Photo: Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times)

He was in Sutherland Springs, 35 miles southeast of San Antonio, about an hour after the shooting that left 26 dead during a Nov. 5, 2017, Sunday morning worship service. There he heard about a young man who had been hit in the back by gunfire.

Later at the hospital, the man was sedated but Abbott went to talked to the man's mother. He recalled the anguish his own mother went through in the hours after first seeing him in the hospital.

"I said to her, 'you know, I heard your son was injured in the exact same spot where my back injury happened,'" recalled Abbott, presently the only U.S. governor who uses a wheelchair for mobility. "'So I just wanted to stop by and shake the hand of a potential future governor of Texas.' She was immediately put at ease and felt here's someone who really does understand."

Turning grief into action

Scenes like that would be repeated just months later when 10 people, including eight students, were gunned down at Santa Fe High School near Galveston. A 17-year-old student, charged with also wounding 13 others, was taken into custody in the May 18 attack.

Abbott was given high marks, even from some Democrats, for both the tone of his response to the series of tragedies and for the actions he took in response.

John Sharp, chancellor of Texas A&M University, speaks after being appointed chair of the Governor's Commission to Rebuild Texas during a briefing with local officials at the Nueces County Courthouse on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017.(Photo: Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times)

Within days after Harvey slammed the coast, Abbott tapped former Texas Comptroller John Sharp, a Democrat who is now chancellor of Texas A&M University, to lead the effort cut through the red tape and get started on the recovery.

Sharp, whose political career began 40 years ago when he was elected to the Texas House at age 28, praised Abbott for his decisiveness and for his ability to master complex problems on short notice.

"I've done a few things like this in the past with governors," Sharp of the task Abbott saddled him with. "But I've never quite had a governor that when he walked into a room he knew more about it (the problem awaiting a solution) than anybody else in the room."

Abbott also convened several town hall-style meetings with the survivors of both Sutherland Springs and Santa Fe as he searched for solutions to gun violence and to enhance school safety.

The meetings produced a series of recommendations lawmakers are likely to consider next year, including reinforcing the entrances at schools, adding armed marshals to campuses and more resources to help people with mental illness.

Most of the measures have drawn broad support. But some activists say Abbott should expend some of the political capital he's amassed to take bold action that might keep guns out of the hands of would-be killers.

"The governor called together all those people to talk about gun violence. That was inspiring but it didn't go far enough," said Andrea Brauer, who describes herself as a mom who is active in the gun-safety movement.

"The people of Texas want common-sense gun laws, like universal background checks, red-flag laws," she said. "We're not talking about taking guns away from law-abiding citizens. But I mean Texas was the site of the worst church shooting ever. It's time to show some courage and do something."

A place on the national stage

Bill Miller, a longtime Capitol insider, said Abbott's eye-on-the-ball governing style mixed with political savvy that's sometimes underrated leave the governor in a strong position as he prepares for his second inauguration on Jan. 15.

"He's riding high, he's looking good and he's going to do very well," said Miller, a lobbyist and behind-the-scenes political operative, who pointed out that Abbott used both his political capital and some of his own campaign money to help struggling down-ballot Republicans hang on during an election year where Democrats dominated nationwide.

Rottinghaus agreed, saying Abbott's actions during the recent crises and his performance on Election Night raised his stature in Texas above that of the more flamboyant Cruz.

“I think Abbott is now the hub of the (Texas) Republican party right now," he said.

Both Rottinghaus and Miller said Abbott is well positioned for national leadership.

"Whether he thinks about it, I don't know," said Miller. " But he should be someone people think about when they have those conversations."

Texas Governor Greg Abbott during an interview at his office in the State Capitol in Austin on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018.(Photo: Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times)

Abbott said his post as vice chairman of the National Republican Governors Association and is likely ascension as chairman in 2020 does give him a platform to help drive the national political conversation.

He brushed aside questions about following the footsteps of his most recent predecessors, George W. Bush and Rick Perry by running for president in 2020 or 2024.

"Is there anything better," he said with a wide smile, "than being at the top of the heap in Texas?"

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at John.Moritz@caller.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.

Senior Pastor Scott Jones speaks at the First Baptist Church of Rockport during its Hurricane Harvey anniversary service attended by Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2018. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times,

Senior Pastor Scott Jones speaks at the First Baptist Church of Rockport during its Hurricane Harvey anniversary service attended by Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2018. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times,

People listen to Cynthia Williams talk about her experience with Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath at the First Baptist Church of Rockport during a Hurricane Harvey anniversary service on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2018. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times,

People listen to Cynthia Williams talk about her experience with Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath at the First Baptist Church of Rockport during a Hurricane Harvey anniversary service on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2018. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times,